Caroline Bird College Is A Waste Of Time Essay

1024 Words5 Pages

“College is a Waste of Time and Money” is an essay written by Caroline Bird which expresses the view that college is not essential to adulthood, is a poor investment, and adults should not assert to young adults that going to college is the right thing to do. Bird gives an immensely strong argument that “It has become too expensive in money, time, and intellectual effort to serve as a holding pen for large numbers of our young” (Bird, 436). After reading the essay, it is evident that a great percentage of the students attending college do not actually want to be there and are attending due to the reiteration that college is a necessity. Thus, college is now a money-making industry and focuses on the social aspect of college rather than the …show more content…

She goes on to claim that college has become a social center, and a mammoth industry. As a result of the absence of enthusiasm toward attending college, most students become introverted and drop out. Bird then discusses, using credible sources and interviews, how a large percentage of students do not want to be in college, cannot wait to finally finish, or feel as though it is a waste of money. She also includes numerous ways to save money, intended for college, to make more of a profit than the average graduate from college. To back up her theory, she uses more credible sources to defend that having a college degree does not justify having a higher income. Furthermore, she argues how it is difficult to encounter careers that correlate with a degree. In the closing of her essay, she uses examples to prove that many people who possess careers due to their degree do not actually learn how to do their job from college but on the job. She ends the essay by implying that America should find better ways for students to mature and prepare for their